1. Technical Field
Example embodiments of the present invention relate in general to a group control method for providing a machine type communication (MTC) service and a mobile communication system using the method, and more particularly, to a group control method for an MTC service that controls an MTC group consisting of a plurality of MTC devices in a mobile communication system based on Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE)-Advanced and a mobile communication system using the method.
2. Related Art
MTC or machine-to-machine communication (M2M) is a form of data communication which involves one or more entities that do not necessarily need human interaction. A service optimized for MTC differs from a service optimized for human-to-human communication. In comparison with a current mobile network communication service, MTC can bpe characterized by a) several market scenarios, b) data communications, c) lower cost and less effort, d) a potentially larger number of communicating terminals, e) a wider service area, and f) very low traffic per terminal.
MTC may be implemented in various forms of service, for example, smart metering, tracking and tracing, remote maintenance and control, and e-health.
Lately, 3GPP has also been working on MTC standardization for intelligent communication between a human and a machine and between machines. For various types of MTC applications having main functions of smart metering, remote control, etc., a huge number of MTC devices are disposed and managed.
In 3GPP LTE systems, MTC devices and general user equipments (or user terminals) are both treated as user equipments (or user terminals), and thus MTC devices also need to be individually registered in an LTE network. The disposition of multiple MTC devices causes scheduling competition for channel allocation, exhaustion of radio resources, overload resulting from signal generation, and so on, thereby exerting a bad influence on general user equipments. With an emphasis put on minimization of the adverse effect caused by the disposition of MTC devices, 3GPP has been working on standardization.
Meanwhile, due to characteristics of MTC devices, an operator can categorize multiple MTC devices of the same kind as one group and manage the devices together. When MTC devices are categorized as an MTC group and managed, several advantages can be obtained in terms of device control and management, billing, etc., and signal overload can be reduced compared to individual terminal control. In particular, network resources are saved when there are many MTC devices.
Although 3GPP has adopted the concept of categorizing and managing MTC devices as an MTC group and is currently drawing requirements from the concept, no effective solution has been proposed yet.